The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-02-22
HUNTING THE COON.
A Spirit-Stirring Sport that is Out
of Fashion.
The Two Sorts Of Dog That Used to Be
Used in New Jersry-Eminpnt Men
Who Followed the
Chase.

What this country needs is Sport>men
with less affcctation and more snap.
Hunters 90 from New Jersey TO the
barren hills of PENNSYLVANIA forty miles
or more away. and stand aIl day OH
uin'->wept runways waiting for a
shot at the deer that meyer comes. or
tramp from morning tilt night through
= swampy swail> and brambly thickets
hunting the pheasant that fails TO rise.
while sport that famous men loved
and elevated and grew enthusiastic
over years ago. and from which no
hunter can return without pleasure anu
profit. goes begging on every side of
Ia The manner in which the Oppor-
families offered by the hills and valleys
Of Northern New Jersey for the rarcSt
OF sport are neglected is enough to
make the bones of the dead and gone
lovers of the Star-lit chase turn and
rattle i'm their graves. The Star-lit
CHASE To which | refer was the coon
hunt, at which confession. doubtless,
gerry owner of y cake-fcd setter and a
hUnGrcd-and-fifty-d brrecl-loading
4 shotgun from Tri-Statt> Rock To Pahag-
puary Flats. will raise Il shout of drrision
loud enough Ia scare every coon i'm
Sussex County into winter quarters six
weeks before his time. But why the
coon hunt has fallen into such a dis
rcputc with the present generation of
s,,ortsmen. and why the ring-tailed
and cunning dcnizen of the hills and
hollow> himself has come to be despised
ly them. must Ice set down i'm the list
Of those things which no fellow can find
out
Why the coon should be so despised
by our Sportsmen of to-day is mys-
terry. He is as cunning rs the fox and
more difficult to find. He should not
lie de>piscd. surely. because he can be
hunted only at night. for in threading
| tie woods i'm the darkness. following
&,ogS that YOU can not see. and whose
a Hsyin9 alone breaks the stiffness. there
Is most singular enchantment. Or,
rather. there was such an enciamtment,
for the b:.ving of the dogs il heard no
more. not simply because the genuine
coon hunt of our fathers il lost
art. but because the coon dog of
our fathers is a species of animal
! that may truly be said To have be-
come extinct. He was of no particular
strain of blood, as | remember him,
| but he united the keen scent of the
dcerhound with the intelligence of the
shepherd dog, and the tenacity of the
bulldog with the stealth of the panther.
With fewer accomplishments than these
he could have well been fully equipped
for the fox or deer trail: the lowing
herd would have been safe in his keep
3Ag; he could have held his own in Il
contest in the pit. or he could have
made himself conspicuous object in
any community as a highly successful
forager on sheep pastures he
never could have been coon dog. To
be that he needed not only scent but
knowledge; not only tenacity but willy
ness. For your coon is a cute and
tricky customer. He is crammed to the
muzzle with patience. He is wonder
full i'm strategy. and tactician peerless.
Moreover his trail is as cold as ice on
window pane, and almost As scentless as
q SNOWFALL. He leads through tangled
swamps and deep, stony hOllOwS. He
crosses and recrosses swift-rnnning
streams. He frisks around the tops of
pNugh stone walls as silent and swift
( shadow. He stops within dozen
Seet of some convenient tree, clears the
Intervening space with a single bound,
strikes the stem of the tree five or six
feet from the ground. glides up to the
longest branch. runs to its very ex-
tremity, and leaps dozen feet beyond
pit to the ground again, thus breaking
his trail abruptly on one side and be-
ginning it as confusingly abrupt on the
bother He invents tactics for emergen-
cics, and brings to every consideration
for his welfare and that of his family a
arge and uniformly level head. To
match the cunning, the skill and the
almost human reasoning of this alert
rStle prowler, in a scientific and sports
h3nlike way, the old time coon dog
came to the front, and the frigidity Of
the evening had to be exceedingly I'M
comfortable when he failed TO hold SIS